Formative evaluation and its relevance to palliative care

Abstract

For the most part, the evaluation of health care and
attempts to improve the quality of health care have
drawn upon quantitative methods of research.
However, for many questions, and in many health
care specialities, quantitative methods of evaluation
may be neither practical, desirable, nor ethical.
Qualitative methods may be more appropriate
when evaluators are attempting to ‘open-up’ a new
field of study1 or are concerned to illuminate and
understand issues in an ever-changing context.
Various qualitative methods have been developed
which potentially hold out a number of possibilities
within the area of palliative care.2 Qualitative
case study evaluation is one such example. In this
paper, key characteristics of this methodological
approach are presented and explained, and illustrated
by reference to the evaluation of two palliative
care services. More specifically, the paper
will focus upon the process of conducting this type
of evaluation in the context of palliative care. For
this reason the evaluation findings are presented
elsewhere3-6.

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